3 Houston-area districts, 1 charter to pilot new teacher evaluation

Texas public education officials on Friday released the final list of 68 charters and school districts that will pilot a new method for assessing teachers this fall.

Three districts and one charter in the Houston area agreed to try the new method, called the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System, or T-TESS. They are Friendswood ISD, Lamar Consolidated ISD, Stafford Municipal ISD and the Houston Heights Learning Academy. Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, the area’s second-largest district, decided against piloting the new method earlier this month. In the San Antonio area, Jubilee Academic Center will pilot the method.

Of the original 72 districts Texas Education Agency officials said expressed interest, 66 opted into the pilot program by the May 15 deadline. Two additional districts that had not originally expressed interest — Terrell ISD in Kaufman County and Desoto ISD in Dallas County — opted in.

Teacher groups have raised concerns over T-TESS since details rolled out this summer. The new method would initially require districts participating in the pilot to base 20 percent of teacher grades on “student growth” data, which would include student scores on state standardized tests for about one-quarter of public school teachers. To ensure Texas could opt out of stringent federal education standards under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, state education officials also agreed to require every school district to adopt at least the 20 percent student growth grading requirement — the final details could vary — starting in 2015.

The Houston Independent School District, the state’s largest, has already developed an evaluation system that considers test scores.

TEA officials have acknowledged state law would need to be changed during the next legislative session to ensure the method was lawful, but they stressed that removing the 20 percent provision could cost Texas its NCLB waiver. Teacher unions are urging state officials to postpone the final roll-out.